An interview shows that Pope Francis has taken another bizarre turn towards his interfaith agenda and away from real Christianity:

May 18, 2016

Islam and Christianity share the “same idea of conquest”, and for that reason, Islam should not be viewed as a threat, said Pope Francis in a newspaper interview this week.

“It is true that the idea of conquest is inherent in the soul of Islam,” he conceded to the French Catholic newspaper La Croix. “However, it is also possible to interpret the objective in Matthew’s Gospel, where Jesus sends his disciples to all nations, in terms of the same idea of conquest.”

Ostensibly, the Pope was drawing a parallel between the Islamic “conquest” known as jihad, a holy war or struggle waged against infidels, and Christian missionizing. …

The leader of the Catholic Church mentioned London’s newly appointed Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, as a model for positive integration. The mayor took his oath of office in a cathedral and made his first act as mayor attendance at a Holocaust memorial ceremony.

The leader of the Roman Catholic Church, the pontiff who speaks for 1 billion Christians, said that Jesus’s call to “make disciples of all nations” can be considered equivalent to the Islamic conquest of nations following the death of Mohammed. This conquest is a primary motivation for radical Islamic terrorism today, and the biggest Christian leader said “the same idea of conquest” can be linked to the Great Commission in the Gospel of Matthew.

In an interview on Tuesday with the French magazine La Croix, Francis minimized the difference between Islam and Christianity, arguing that the religions share a concept of subjugation.

Today, I don’t think that there is a fear of Islam as such but of ISIS and its war of conquest, which is partly drawn from Islam. It is true that the idea of conquest is inherent in the soul of Islam. However, it is also possible to interpret the objective in Matthew’s Gospel, where Jesus sends his disciples to all nations, in terms of the same idea of conquest.

Let’s look at what Jesus said in the last few verses in the Gospel according to Matthew:

18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. (Matthew 28:18-20)

Teaching people what Jesus commanded is NOT similar to Islamic Jihad–murder, terrorism, and forcing conversions at the end of the sword. Even the emblem of the Islamic Jihad Movement is militaristic. What Jesus taught is not comparable to Islamic conquest.

Pope Francis seems to wish to overlook what the Bible teaches, as well as early church history, to promote his bizarre and non-Christian interfaith agenda. That is a false gospel (to learn about the true gospel, check out our free online booklet The Gospel of the Kingdom of God).

Furthermore, it should be understood that most who profess Christianity do not seem to realize that Jesus’ disciples were NOT militaristic. Nor were their faithful followers. They were not killing others or forcing conversions with the threat of a sword.

It was not until centuries after the Apostle Peter died that military service supposedly became acceptable for people claiming Christianity–and this was mainly the result of a pagan sun-worshiping emperor named Constantine. Real Christians did not agree with Constantine on that.

And this late adoption of military service is known to the Church of Rome, though they overlook this fact.

For from Jerusalem there went out into the world, men, twelve in number, and these illiterate, of no ability in speaking: but by the power of God they proclaimed to every race of men that they were sent by Christ to teach to all the word of God; and we who formerly used to murder one another do not only now refrain from making war upon our enemies, but also, that we may not lie nor deceive our examiners, willingly die confessing Christ (Justin. First Apology, Chapter 39).

O unreasoning men! understanding not what has been proved by all these passages, that two advents of Christ have been announced: the one, in which He is set forth as suffering, inglorious, dishonoured, and crucified; but the other, in which He shall come from heaven with glory, when the man of apostasy, who speaks strange things against the Most High, shall venture to do unlawful deeds on the earth against us the Christians, who, having learned the true worship of God from the law, and the word which went forth from Jerusalem by means of the apostles of Jesus, have fled for safety to the God of Jacob and God of Israel; and we who were filled with war, and mutual slaughter, and every wickedness, have each through the whole earth changed our warlike weapons,–our swords into ploughshares, and our spears into implements of tillage,–and we cultivate piety, righteousness, philanthropy, faith, and hope, which we have from the Father Himself through Him who was crucified; and sitting each under his vine (Dialogue, Chapter 110).

Now, here is something from Theophilus of Antioch (who probably was part of the Church of God and is considered a saint by the Church of Rome) perhaps written about 180 A.D.:

Consider, therefore, whether those who teach such things can possibly live indifferently, and be commingled in unlawful intercourse, or, most impious of all, eat human flesh, especially when we are forbidden so much as to witness shows of gladiators, lest we become partakers and abettors of murders. But neither may we see the other spectacles, lest our eyes and ears be defiled, participating in the utterances there sung. Theophilus of Antioch. To Autolycus, Book III, Chapter XV. Translated by Marcus Dods, A.M. Excerpted from Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2. Edited by Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson. American Edition, 1885. Online Edition)

So, true Christians did not believe that they were to fight nor even watch the violent sports that were popular in the second century.

Notice that this is also the position of the third century Catholic theologian and bishop Hippolytus, who also adds various occupations to those that reject one from being a follower of Christ:

16:6 A charioteer, likewise, or one who takes part in the games, or one whogoes to the games, he shall cease or he shall be rejected. 7 If someone is a gladiator, or onewho teaches those among the gladiators how to fight, or a hunter who is in the wild beastshows in the arena, or a public official who is concerned with gladiator shows, either heshall cease, or he shall be rejected. 8 If someone is a priest of idols, or an attendant of idols, he shall cease or he shall be rejected. 9 A military man in authority must not execute men. Ifhe is ordered, he must not carry it out. Nor must he take military oath. If he refuses, he shallbe rejected. 10 If someone is a military governor, or the ruler of a city who wears the purple, he shall cease or he shall be rejected. 11 The catechumen or faithful who wants to become asoldier is to be rejected, for he has despised God. (Hippolytus. The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus of Rome. From the work of Bernard Botte (La Tradition Apostolique. Sources Chretiennes, 11 bis. Paris, Editions du Cerf, 1984) and of Gregory Dix (The Treatise on the Apostolic Tradition of St. Hippolytus of Rome, Bishop and Martyr. London: Alban Press, 1992) as translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb http://www.bombaxo.com/hippolytus.html viewed 08/06/09)

Around 250 A.D., elder/presbyter Pionius of Smyrna asked:

To whom have we done wrong? Have we perchance murdered someone? Or, do we persecute anyone? Or have we obliged anyone to venerate idols? (Martyrdom of Pionius as translated in Monroy, Mauricio Saavedra. The Church of Smyrna: History and Theology of a Primitive Christian Community. Peter Lang edition, 2015, p. 155)

He asked those questions knowing full well that real Christians had not done any of those things.

As late as the beginning of the fourth century, the Catholic apologist Lactanus/Lactanius wrote:

For when God forbids us to kill, He not only prohibits us from open violence, which is not even allowed by the public laws, but He warns us against the commission of those things which are esteemed lawful among men. Thus it will be neither lawful for a just man to engage in warfare (Lactanus. Divine Institutes, Book VI (Of True Wisdom and Religion), Chapter 20).

Or why should he carry on war, and mix himself with the passions of others, when his mind is engaged in perpetual peace with men? {The Christian} considers it unlawful not only himself to commit slaughter, but to be present with those who do it, and to behold it (Lactanus. Divine Institutes, Book V (Of True Wisdom and Religion), Chapter 18).

Yet, Pope Francis dares comparing teaching Jesus’ words with warfare?

Horrific.

He and his church do not seem to understand early Christianity and what Jesus was teaching.